Thank you so much for signing and sharing. Can you please SHARE with any friend or family member that is struggling to pay their rent, is at risk of becoming homeless, the young - who believe they will never have housing security - and those who have had life changes such as a divorce which can mean they may never know housing security again.
I am certainly not against those who want to have an investment property, who lease it out at a reasonable rent and don't punish those who are good tenants. After all 71.48% of investors hold only 1 investment property of the 3.25 million investment properties that are held in Australia.
But investment homes surely were never meant to become a business of multiple homes for those who want a Pty Ltd company that flips houses for profit, to have landlords who gouge renters - or to prevent future generations from ever owning a home?
Surely this is not what John Howard meant to happen when he reduced Capital Gains Tax and allowed wealthy PAYE Taxpayers to use their investment homes to reduce the income tax payable on their salaries to zero (this is not allowed anywhere else in the world)?
Even the USA - the home of mega capitalism - only allows home occupiers (buyers) to claim their mortgage interest as a tax deduction - yet in good old 'fair' Australia - ONLY investors can!
BOTH major parties seem to prioritise the wants of the approx 2.25 million people who own investment properties in Australia - ABOVE the needs of the majority 25 MILLION+ Australians who don't own an investment house!
The latest data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reveals that 2,245,539 Australians or around 20% of Australia’s 11.4 million taxpayers owned an investment property in 2020-21 – this is the latest data available at this time and was released in June 2023.
Despite the fact that those orgnisations who represent Landlords in Australia catastrophise about the 'terrible' situation of Landlords - there was an increase of half a million more property investors in Australia in 2020-2021 than there were in 2009-2010.
The breakdown of multiple investors is:
18.86% of investors hold 2 investment properties
5.81% of investors own 3 investment properties
2.11% of investors own 4 investment properties
0.87% of investors own 5 investment properties
0.89% (or 19,920) of investors hold 6 or more investment properties
That 28.54% or 684,000 investors must wield an awful lot more power than you, our children or I!
It's about time we put the FAIR back into OUR housing 'market' - which based on the actions of BOTH major political parties in Australia - the ONLY way that this can ever happen is if multiple MILLIONS of Australians of voting age who don't have investment houses STAND UP and say 'enough is enough'
Even if BOTH major parties changed their policies, the only way we can prevent future neo-liberal populist Governments from changing housing policy back to the unfairness of today in future decades - is for Australians to demand that Housing is legislated as a Human Right in Australia (along with water, food & medical care - but that will be another fight for fairness very soon in our future I suspect)